Michael Stipe Arrested! Sort Of!

…And here we see the danger of setting up Google alerts for people’s names. Because there’s no denying that Michael Stipe was indeed arrested on Tuesday night and charged with assault with a dangerous weapon. Of course, the fact that the Michael Stipe in question is 64 years old, sports a beard and is most definitely not the singer in REM doesn’t make a different to our alert. As if the whole thing wasn’t strange enough, the details of the case are kind of hilarious: the dangerous weapon in question was a cake pan, over which non-REM Stipe and his roomate Linda Weeden argued –- Weeden threw the pan away after Stipe asked her to wash it. He was taken into custody after Weeden claimed he retrieved the pan and hit her with it while she was asleep. Stipe “admitted throwing the pan but said he did not hit [her] with it.” Um. OK then. [Via Des Moines Register]